


When Life Sucks, Eat Chocolate

by SKJC



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 16:55:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11582274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SKJC/pseuds/SKJC
Summary: Yuri has been depressed lately, and Otabek decides to surprise him.





	When Life Sucks, Eat Chocolate

**Author's Note:**

> I was preemptively writing some bits and pieces for the YOI wedding week on Tumblr, and I alluded to an event where Otabek surprised Yuri at a competition with his favorite chocolates. I decided I wanted to write that, so here we are.

Otabek knew perfectly well that it wasn't like him to flit off on a whim to see his boyfriend in another country. Even if he hadn’t been aware of that previously, however, he certainly would be now that his coach, family, and friends had all felt the need to tell him so.

But it was the weekend of the European Championships, and Yuri had seemed depressed for a while, and Otabek missed him terribly besides being worried about him. So, here he was on a plane to Europe, all to spend a grand total of less than two days in Yuri’s company. It simply hadn’t been possible for him to get away for the entire weekend.

The plan wasn’t all that complicated. He’d hopefully arrive in time to surprise Yuri before the free skate, and then they’d spend the evening together afterwards. It had been necessary to enlist Victor’s help to arrange credentials to even get into the venue, since he wasn’t actually competing, and during the course of that conversation it had come up that Yuri’s coach wouldn’t mind him disappearing for a little while after the competition. Apparently the entire team had noticed his melancholy demeanor in recent months.

Otabek checked his phone when the plane touched down and social media was kind enough to inform him that the first practice sessions were just beginning, so he had plenty of time. Since it was a short trip, he hadn’t checked any baggage, so he was able to catch a cab from the airport rather quickly after getting off the plane.

The pre-arranged credentials were waiting for Otabek when he arrived, and Yuri’s practice group was just getting out on the ice once he’d gotten through security and properly into the building. It didn’t take long for him to find a place to watch from, and even though Yuri didn’t look quite like himself on the ice, he still had that certain presence about him that Otabek - and surely other skaters as well - envied at least a little bit.

Just before the practice session wrapped up, Otabek went to find a place to wait for Yuri to pass by on his way to the backstage areas. A few of the other skaters gave him curious, confused looks as they passed, surely wondering why he was even there, but he shrugged it off. There was already gossip, that would just add to it.

Yuri wore a scowl on his face as he stomped through the hall, putting more abuse on his skate guards than was strictly necessary, and he was clearly paying no attention to who was leaning against the wall.

“Autograph for a fan?” Otabek asked when Yuri stalked by, attempting and failing to sound casual. Yuri’s head whipped around to glare for a brief second before his intense expression softened into one of surprise.

“The hell are you doing here?” Yuri demanded, staring with shock-widened eyes.

“I wanted to see you,” Otabek replied simply. “It’s been a while and I’ve missed you.”

Yuri gave an overly dramatic roll of his eyes and continued to make his way down the hall, and Otabek joined him. “I don’t know if you saw my short program, but I’m not much to watch on the ice these days,” he said as they entered one of the green room areas.

“I did see it.”Otabek took Yuri’s right hand in his own and brought it to his lips, lightly kissing the bruised knuckles where Yuri had failed at breaking his fall during the short program. “It wasn’t that bad. You’re going into the free skate in fourth, you’ve pulled off worse odds than that.”

Yuri just shrugged awkwardly and stared down at his skates, expression shifting somewhere between ‘annoyed’ and ‘dejected’ on Otabek’s internal Yuri Plisetsky Mood Scale.

“Well, regardless,” Otabek continued, still holding onto Yuri’s hand, “I did bring you a surprise for later.”

A smirk crossed Yuri’s face as he looked up. “If you’re talking about your dick, that hasn’t been a surprise for a while.”

Otabek couldn’t suppress the laughter that bubbled out of him. “Good to know that not even a bad mood can stop you from saying things like that,” he said when he’d regained some composure. “I’ll let you get ready for the free skate. See you a bit later?”

Yuri nodded and pulled him into a hug that lasted a full minute before letting him go.

Otabek watched the free skate programs from another improvised vantage point in the stands. When Yuri took the ice in his iridescent, flowing costume, Otabek made eye contact with him and grinned widely as he gave their signature thumbs-up.

Right off the bat, Yuri looked better than he had during the internet stream of his short program. Otabek wasn’t egotistical enough to attribute that to his presence - unlike some skaters he could name, Yuri nearly always performed better under pressure anyway. When he landed the quad flip that he’d fallen on previously, Otabek cheered with the rest of the crowd. He knew that Yuri hated that jump, because it prompted people to compare him to Victor, but he was capable of executing it extremely well, at least some of the time.

Otabek couldn’t help but think that even with the smattering of small technical errors, Yuri’s skating was truly something to behold. The way that his lithe form created art on the ice was a whirlwind of passion and fire that rivaled the beauty of the great sonnets and symphonies of history, at least as far as Otabek was concerned.

The score that flashed on the boards as Yuri sat in the kiss and cry after his performance wasn’t a record, not even close, but it was enough to put him in the medal standings. After the last skaters completed their own routines, he ended up with bronze.

Otabek knew better than to think he’d be satisfied with that. On his way to Yuri's hotel later, he stopped at a shop and picked up a bottle of red wine, a corkscrew, and a couple of plastic glasses. It wasn’t as though he could have flown easily with any of that, and it would go well with the box of Yuri’s favorite chocolate he’d brought along from home.

Yuri had texted his room number when he’d gotten back to the hotel, so Otabek made his way there and knocked on the door. When it swung open, Yuri stood there wearing grey sweatpants and a t-shirt with a faded picture of a snow leopard printed on the front. Both items of clothing looked as though he could stand to go up a size.

“Sorry you decided to come all the way here to watch me fuck up,” he said.

“I didn’t see anything I’d describe as fucking up, but that’s your call.” Otabek held up the bottle of wine and the box of chocolates. “So, can I come in or what?”

Yuri eyed the box and stepped aside to let Otabek into the room. “Is that what I think it is?” He asked, a hint of excitement creeping into his voice.

“If you think it’s the your favorite dark chocolate sea salt ganache from that place by my apartment, then yes, it is.” Otabek set the box and bottle down on the dresser, placed his backpack on the floor, and bent to pull the plastic glasses and the corkscrew out of it. “That’s the surprise, by the way. I also got some wine to go with it.”

“So you came all the way here to feed me chocolate and booze?” Yuri perched on the edge of the bed and eyed Otabek up and down. “Seems like a good use of your time two weeks before Four Continents.”

Otabek shrugged and toed his sneakers off next to the backpack. “I worked out this morning, and I’ll be back tomorrow night in time to get in a good run. I wouldn’t have had ice time today anyway.”

“I’m not complaining or anything.” Yuri folded himself into a cross-legged seating position while Otabek turned to open the bottle of wine. “Just don’t tell Yakov or Lilia about the blatant violations of my diet plan.”

“It’s not like any of this is on mine either,” Otabek replied dryly, pouring the wine into the plastic glasses. “I know red wine isn’t really your favorite, but I didn’t think a white would go with chocolate.”

“Beka, after these last few months, I’d drink paint thinner to relax for a night.” A scowl returned to Yuri’s face as he spoke the words.

“Hold that thought,” Otabek said, handing the box of chocolates to Yuri. “There’s a bit more to my plan first.” He walked over to the nightstand with the two glasses of wine as well as the rest of the bottle and set them down, and then took a seated position on the bed, his back against the headboard. “Get over here.”

“Oh, so cuddling goes with the booze and junk food?” Yuri asked, mildly sarcastic, but he crawled up the bed to seat himself between Otabek’s legs, leaning back against his chest. “I guess there’s worse ideas.”

Otabek reached over to the nightstand and handed one of the glasses to Yuri, kept the other for himself, and settled his free arm around Yuri’s waist. “Ok. Drink, and eat, and when you’re ready to talk about it without getting too mad at me, I want to know why you’ve been so upset lately. I’ve been pretty worried, you know.”

Instead of replying, Yuri downed half his glass in one go and opened the box of chocolates to pop one into his mouth. “This is good,” he murmured, settling himself closer into Otabek’s embrace. “Thanks for thinking of me, or whatever.”

“You're welcome.” Otabek kissed Yuri’s cheek lightly before taking a sip of his own glass. “Or whatever.”

Once they’d finished off the chocolate and wine, with Yuri having the vast majority of both, Yuri rearranged himself so that his legs draped over Otabek’s lap and he could rest his head against Otabek’s shoulder. Otabek allowed himself to be manipulated into whatever position Yuri liked, and wrapped his arms around Yuri’s body again once they were setled.

“Feeling any better?” Otabek asked gently. He knew perfectly well that even the entire bottle of wine wouldn't have been enough to get Yuri drunk, but he did hope it would loosen his tongue a little.

“Not really.” Yuri sighed heavily and pressed his face into the side of Otabek’s neck. “I thought all of this shit would be over by now.”

“All of what shit?”

“After I fucking grew like a weed when I was sixteen,” Yuri grumbled. “I figured it was done with. And then last summer it started up again, and I worked my ass off to get my jumps back fucking again, and then the GP series hit and I was fucking up the damn quad Salchow, never mind anything else.”

“And you’re worried this time it’s a permanent change,” Otabek guessed. It certainly made sense, Yuri had barely qualified for the Grand Prix Final and finished out of the medal standings. He’d figured that had something to do with his boyfriend’s mood, but hadn’t guessed it was the growth issue again before now. Yuri did seem taller than he had in December, although not by a lot this time.

“Yeah,” Yuri replied in a small voice against Otabek’s shoulder. “I’m not good at anything else, Beka. If I don’t have this, I don’t have anything.”

Otabek could feel the damp heat of Yuri’s tears through his t-shirt and hugged him a little tighter, bringing one hand up to stroke his hair in a comforting gesture.

“I’m not going to tell you that it will pass,” Otabek said, finally, after struggling for a few moments to find the words he wanted. “We both know I can’t possibly know that.” He gave a little sigh and turned his head to kiss Yuri’s forehead gently. “But I believe in you. It might more time than you’d like to get back to normal, but you've overcome this before, and I think you can again.”

“You’re my boyfriend, you have to say that,” Yuri mumbled, a bit of amusement underlining the words even though his eyes were still red. “I feel like I can’t even tell where my legs end half the time.”

“I like your legs,” Otabek said honestly, with no innuendo whatsoever behind the words. That had been true even before they’d become intimately involved. “And I really do believe that you’ll get the consistency of your skills back with time. The flip you landed today was pretty spectacular.”

“Yeah, it would have been great if I’d done it properly in the short program.” The scowl returned to Yuri’s face.

“Look at it this way,” Otabek suggested. “It took time to get all your jumps consistently to begin with, right? And to get them back a couple years ago? So getting them back to that level again won't happen in days or weeks.”

“Or months, apparently.” Yuri curled closer in Otabek’s embrace. “It sucks. And missing you all the damn time doesn’t make it any better.”

Otabek’s heart ached with sympathy at that statement. “I’m sorry,” he said after a moment’s pause. “I don't want this… us… to make things harder for you.”

“That’s not what I meant, asshole.” Yuri shifted just enough to elbow Otabek hard in the ribcage. “It’s just… I’m not good at all this feelings bullshit.”

Otabek smiled slightly. It may have been less than a year since their friendship had turned into something romantic, but Yuri’s relative discomfort with feelings of most types was no secret to anyone who knew him in any capacity. “Well, I miss you all the time too,” he replied, “but I’d rather miss you than not have you to miss.”

Yuri actually laughed a little. “Now that’s some great romantic shit right there,” he said wryly. “But I like having you to miss too. It just sucks sometimes.”

“Agreed.” Otabek moved the hand that had been stroking Yuri’s hair over to his chin and gently lifted his face up enough to steal a quick kiss. “But we’re here now, and we can make summer plans soon too.”

“If I’m not spending all summer drilling jumps.”

“If you are, then I’ll come visit and do it with you.” Otabek grinned and kissed Yuri’s lips again quickly. “This summer will be our first anniversary, you know. I wouldn’t miss it even if we do have to go to the rink every day.”

Yuri's cheeks turned a bit pink and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. “Yeah, a whole year since we made out on your couch for the first time.”

“And you tried to pretend you knew what you were doing,” Otabek added with a teasing tone. “It was cute.”

“Oh, shut up, I wasn’t that bad.” Yuri rolled his eyes and kissed at Otabek's neck lightly. “Besides, I learned quick.”

“Mmm, you certainly did.” Otabek’s eyes drifted closed for a moment, enjoying the feeling of Yuri’s soft lips on his skin. “But I wanted you so badly it wouldn’t have mattered either way.”

“Oh my god.” Yuri pushed himself up to straddle Otabek’s hips and laid his arms over Otabek’s shoulders. “How can you even say things like that?”

Otabek settled his hands on Yuri's hips in return and looked up at him, taking in the sight gratefully. “Because they’re true,” he said, and that was all he had a chance to get out before Yuri was kissing him again.


End file.
